In the field of guided missile and artillery rocket ballistics and aerodynamics, typical air vehicles employ a number of different concepts for propulsion and lift. Some of the lift and guidance schemes utilize lateral thrusters, deployed wing and tail surfaces and non-circular cross sections. All of the concepts and schemes, however, share one thing in common; that being symmetry between the lift and control surfaces on the left side and the right side of the air vehicle. The popularity of the symmetric lift and control surfaces is due to the fact that this arrangement makes the vehicle generally easier to stabilize and steer and also simplifies the guidance and control of the vehicle during flight. Further, symmetric control surfaces are much more intuitively obvious to the vehicle designers than are non-symmetric lifting and control surfaces.
However, for a tube-launched air vehicle, the size constraints of the launch tube greatly limit the size and shape of the control surfaces that can be accommodated in the stowed position. These size and shape limitations reduce the capability of the air vehicle as a weapon system since symmetrical control surfaces beyond a certain shape and size will not fit within the constraints of the vehicle packaging inside the launch tube.